What a crazy year it’s been… and that’s just in softball, where we lost everything from PGF Nationals to the Women’s College World Series to the Olympics!
We’re finally into December and will soon be finishing the end of another calendar year. Let’s hope 2021 is much more “normal” than this year!
Two weeks from Thursday, we’ll begin what has become an annual tradition for Extra Inning Softball: looking at the 2020 Top 15 Stories of the Year. We will kick off our retrospective review on December 17 with Story #15 and finish on Thursday, December 31st (New Year’s Eve day) with the #1 Story of the Year.
We would love to get YOUR opinion on what you think will have been the most impactful, surprising, shocking, inspiring, funny or interesting stories in fastpitch softball from January 1, 2020 through the end of this month.
Let us know your thoughts—email your opinions and ideas to: [email protected] no later than Monday, December 14, 2020 @ 5 pm EST.
*****
In 2019, here were our Top 15 Softball Stories of the Year as we counted down from #15 to #1 (click on link to read):
- #15… Team USA Dominates Summer Competition… with One Exception
- #14… USA Softball’s 2020 Stand Beside Her Tour… Taking the Brand Nationwide
- #13… Sam Show’s Bat Flips – & Clutch Performances – Light Up the 2019 Season
- #12… National High School Player of the Year Sydney Supple Spearheads Hometown Field of Dreams
- #11… Busy Year for the NPF Including USSSA Pride Out & CA Commotion In
- #10… PGF Nationals Celebrates 10 Years with Barnburner Finishes
- #9… Coaches Accused of Abuse by Players at Power 5 Colleges
- #8… Mark Campbell’s Death Stuns Club & High School Softball World
- #7… September 1 Becomes a Special Day in Recruiting (Again)
- #6… 2020 Tokyo Olympic Field of Six Finalized
- #5… Geri Ann Glasco Dies in Car Accident… Softball Community Mourns, Rallies Behind Glasco Family
- #4… UCLA Back on Top with WCWS Title, Rachel Garcia Repeats as National Player of the Year
- #3… Softball Out at 2024 Paris Olympics
- #2… USA Olympic Team Selected for 2020 Tokyo Games
- #1… Transfer Portal Impacts Softball at Multiple Levels!
*****
In 2018, here were our Top 15 Softball Stories of the Year as we counted down from #15 to #1 (click on link to read):
- #15… Alexia Carrasquillo: The Shot Heard Round the Recruiting World
- #14… Ashley Rogers Overcomes Tragedy to Become National Player of the Year
- #13… High School Senior Sydney Supple Approaching $100K To Build Hometown Field of Dreams
- #12… NFCA’s StrikeOut Cancer Initiative Provides Unity & Half Million-Plus For Research
- #11… There’s Rage in Them Cajuns…. Michael Lotief Firing at ULL Sparks Pushback from Coach & Players
- #10… Controversy at TC/USA Nationals As Championship Team Disqualified
- #9… Mike Stith Wins Club Title & Pro Championship In Same Season
- #8… Team USA Looks Unstoppable Heading Towards 2020 Olympics
- #7… The South Shall Rise Again (Is The West No Longer The Dominant Region?)
- #6… On-Campus Shootings; The Softball World Also Affected
- #5… MSU’s Alex Wilcox Cancer Death Sparks Movement of Support
- #4… Jesse Warren-Led Florida State Makes National Splash
- #3… DI Transfer Mania–Even All-Americans on The Move
- #2… College Coaching Carousel
- #1… Early Recruiting Rules Changes Everything
Finally, any good stories we missed? Even if yours doesn’t make our Top 15 list, we could still do a feature on it! Send any ideas to: [email protected].